The hottest month of the year brings annual plants bursting into flower turning your garden into a riot of colour. You may be astonished at just how enormous some of your perennials and shrubs have grown – make a note now so that you can move any overcrowded plants in the autumn or next spring. Unfortunately, all sorts of pests and diseases are likely to flourish in the warm weather, so make sure you keep plants well fed and watered. A plant under stress is more liable to succumb to infection. If you find your borders flagging in the sun, water them very well before mulching with bark or gravel from the J Arthur Bower range.

ESSENTIAL JOBS CHECKLIST FOR JULY

• Prune shrubs that have flowered and feed them
• Take cuttings from many shrubs and alpines
• Water containers every day in hot weather
• Water borders if necessary, then mulch
• Clear excess pondweed
• Spray roses and feed
• Dead-head perennials and annuals unless you want to save seed
• Plant leeks and winter brassicas
• Prune trained fruit trees

Sow biennials

• Carry on pruning shrubs that flowered in spring and early summer, then feed them with one of the J Arthur Bower's all-purpose plant foods. It's worth watering well and mulching them even at this stage in the year.
• Cut down the stems of bearded iris now that the blooms have faded. If the clumps are very congested dig them up and divide, cutting the rhizomes at a joint. Trim back the leaves to 15 cm (6 inches). Replant in ordinary garden soil with a bit of J Arthur Bower's grit added, and water in. Continue to water until established.
• Pinch out chrysanthemum shoot tips to encourage them to branch and produce more flowering stems.
• Remove seeds heads of annuals to encourage the plant to produce more flowers
• If your dahlias aren't growing very strongly, give them a boost with some J Arthur Bower's Liquid Growmore every 10-14 days.
• Some early-flowering perennials, particularly lupins and delphiniums, can be encouraged to produce a second, smaller, flush of flowers if you cut the stems right down and apply a liquid feed.
• Take cuttings of non-flowering shoots from many shrubs, putting them round the edge of small pots of half and half peat and sharp sand or peat and perlite. Water them in and keep warm but out of direct sun. Cuttings can also be taken of pinks.
• This is the best month to trim hawthorn hedges. If you cut them earlier they need another trim, but if you leave it any later the growth will be very tough and hard to cut.

• Continue to trim back and feed roses that have finished their first flush of blooms
• Spray as necessary against pests and diseases

• Hopefully, all that hard work you did in the spring will have paid off, and your lawn will be looking green and velvety. If not, there's still time to use any of the wide range of J Arthur Bower's weedkillers, mosskillers and feeds. You should continue to feeds your lawn, and try to mow it twice a week if you can, though once a week will be OK. Don't add the clippings to the compost heap for the first few weeks after applying weedkillers.

• Never let your grow-in bags go short of water as you may find it hard to re-wet them thoroughly
• Plants in pots may need watering every day, and should be fed once a fortnight with a liquid feed
• If whitefly and red spider mite are proving a problem, it is now possible to obtain biological controls, which can be used this month.
• Tomatoes should start fruiting this month. Keep the plants well supported and remove side shoots regularly. Use J Arthur Bower's Liquid Tomato Feed every week to ensure a bumper crop.

• Water containers every day in hot weather. Hanging baskets can be watered twice a day if you've got them time and energy. Feed all containers once a week with J Arthur Bower's Liquid Hanging Basket & Container Liquid Feed

• Carry on sowing salad crops outside. French beans can also be sown at the beginning of the month for a late crop.
• Onions will need a lot of water at this time of year or the yield will be greatly reduced. Weeds will compete for every drop of water, so keep on hoeing around your onions to keep weeds at bay
• Complete planting out young leeks

• Continue to harvest herbs for drying or freezing
• The first week of the month is usually the best time to cut lavender for drying. Cut the hole stalk as soon as the flowers show colour, but before they are fully open. Tie them in small bundles and hang in a greenhouse or warm shed or porch to dry. Alternatively you could lay them in trays in the airing cupboard. When the flower buds are completely dry, rub them gently off the stalks. Use in muslin bags or small bowls

• Trained fruit trees, such as cordons, fans, dwarf pyramids and espaliers should be trimmed of any unwanted shoots this month
• Pick blackcurrants as soon as they ripen. Growth being made now will produce next year's crop so keep bushes watered in dry weather and give them a handful of all-purpose plant food

• Waterlilies should be flowering now, so if you want to buy new plants, now's the time to make your choice. Waterlilies come in all sorts of different sizes – there are even miniature ones suitable for container pools. Make sure you get the right size for your water feature
• If aphids are a problem on waterlily foliage try and knock them off with water spray from a hosepipe. Don't use a greenfly killer anywhere near a pond as it will harm fish and wildlife
• Thin out oxygenating plants taking care not to remove young fish, water snails or froglets with the excess. The best way to do this is to check through the pondweed carefully, then lay it out in bundles around the sides of the pond and leave it overnight. This will give little creatures a chance to slither back into the water

• If mounded or trailing plants seem not to be flourishing after flowering give them a top dressing of J Arthur Bower's peat and Silvaperl silver sand mixed half and half with a dusting of Fish, Blood and Bone. Work this mixture into the plant then water well and dress with Silvaperl coarse grit

Look at our information pages. The aim is to cut out the mystique that surrounds many common tasks, and to explain in a simple way, why and how to do them. This way, we hope to help you enjoy your garden more, and get the best out of it.

Under each topic, you'll also find a guide to the wide range of J Arthur Bower's products available to help you with that particular task. The choice is yours.